Friday, September 30, 2005

What a way to start the day

I’ve had three good starts to the morning this week.  Two were because I got up at the dawn of crack and went to the gym before work; after 60 minutes of good physical exercise and an invigorating shower I seem to feel ready for anything!  Then this morning I came to work on the train (Eggplants at the Water Rats tonight via ANOTHER leaving do, therefore no car required), so used the opportunity to sort out my handbag (what exactly is all that stuff in there?) and indulge in the luxury of listening to music.  The bag was sorted pretty quickly (Oh, that’s what it all is!) which meant I had a good 25 minutes to lose myself in some Pat Metheny.

What is it about music? Why do some musical progressions just do something to us? When you don't know a piece or track there’s that fantastic one time thing of experiencing a lovely moment of surprise when the direction changes either tonally or rhythmically.  Then when you do know a piece there’s the equally fab feeling when you know that a particularly good modulation / musical change is coming up – you prepare for it - and wait  - and when it happens the joy, tension, wretchedness, whatever it does to you is just so thoroughly satisfying.  

When I’m listening on my lovely PocketPC (NB. new version out soon – check this out – its just too sexy for words …) I find myself smiling to myself sometimes in public places; I almost want to grab people and share it with them - of course they would think I was bonkers. (But Jools, you are bonkers), the reader cries …  When I’m performing its even better, because I’m actively involved in creating the perfect environment for the change to happen; so that the change is prepared for - so that when it happens the surprise or the expectancy is delivered to perfection.  I get to experience it as the provider and the receiver – do you see what I mean?  Possibly not ...

Sometimes wish I was good at musical analysis so I could articulate what I mean in musical terms better.  Obviously I can to certain extent - years spent training as musician etc; but I can't really hold my own with the big boys.  And anyway part of me wants to leave it mysterious, just savour the emotional effect it has on me and just lose myself in the music.  

Whatever, it’s a damn fine way to start the day.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Yum yum!

So, the pile of CDs has diminished, the ironing has been obliterated, shopping completed, blah, blah, blah so there’s not much to say!  Actually, I just wanted to post something so I could tell you about my yummy dinner!

The menu
Dinner:  roast duck breast (nice and pink in the middle) with a tangy port and orange sauce (made with a stonkingly good homemade chicken stock), parmesan roasted parsnips, organic carrots and steamed brocolli.  Soon to be followed by Jools’ famous Strawberries (with a dash of Cointreau) and mascarpone cream.

GEYFH!

My Thursday “headache” had started on Wednesday, and in spite of having not much to show for it, it was still with me yesterday and a small mountain of feminax had been consumed. This is all really annoying because I went through a phase when it wasn’t too bad, but over recent months its all been escalating again. It can only think that it is indeed a case that my level of stress dictates how bad I feel in that respect – I have been trying to convince myself over the years that that wasn’t the case – bugger, it’s my own fault...

Anyway, after work on Friday I followed GVS’s advice to “GEYFH”; apropos of nothing ICQ at work is a great thing – its great for the odd bit of letting off steam, random poetry conversations, footwear discussions and in spite of what you might think actually contributes to productivity! So I did exactly as instructed in the HITW with my old work team who it was lovely to see again. Much Pinot Grigio, chips, gossip and fun later I crawled into bed in the early hours, content in the knowledge that I appeared to have banished the “headache”. Unfortunately it was just in hiding (giving me a few hours off – bless!) so having been woken up at 0530 by its insistent return plus a head packed full of stuff again (GEYFH only works for a while it seems!), I heated my lavender heat pack thing, curled up with a cup of camomile tea and went on line.

Happily the shark and my time zones coincided for c. 10 mins so we had a bit of a natter (therapy session …) before she went to bed and I then spent a good 3 hours just surfing. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular just checking out what my friends are listening to and blogging about at the moment. I also downloaded a trial voice dialling program for my beautiful PocketPC so I can get my “7 of 9” style Bluetooth headset up and functioning in a totally hands free way. Currently I can only use it to take incoming calls when I’m driving and still have to make outgoing calls by pushing buttons on the handset - which is not of course legal ... I then realised that the day had pretty much kicked in and considered the things I needed to do that day.

Well, the brain presented me with the list but my body was unable to comply so I took some more Feminax and spent yesterday pretty much as vegetable, curled up with my lavender pack. I did manage to rustle up some lunch, which was followed by Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on DVD; I actually nodded off at one point during this, though I don’t think I really missed anything as it was all a bit disappointing to be honest. That was followed by Ant and Dec (I do love them dearly the lovely little boys, but you can tell that I must have been feeling really bad to be watching Saturday night TV!). I then had a spot of dinner and watched another DVD – Robots; this one I really enjoyed and didn’t fall asleep, though TH did. Wonder when our time zones are going to coincide …? Anyway, an early night followed and an early morning dawned with the “headache” gone. I feel like BloominJools again. Thank the Lord for that!,

However, the upshot of a damn lazy day is that the weekend’s chores now all need to be crammed into one day. Argh! So, I breakfasted while sorting through what looked like a decade’s worth of unopened post and created a huge bag of stuff to take to the recycling centre, I had a happy 10 minutes leafing through the latest Lakeland Plastics catalogue and sorted through the mountain of telephone directories that seem to have accumulated somehow. It was in the process of doing that that I found a CD that I’d been looking for (Rustavi) and I’ve now stalled on the jobs that need to be done because I decided that as I’d found it, I should rip it into iTunes before I mislaid it again. I did that, and listened to the whole CD while I was at it, but then got side tracked ripping some other CDs I hadn’t got round to doing. So ever the "time and motion queen" I thought I could do my blog while all that was going on – that’s a good use of the time isn't it?

So, happily through blog and music listening, GEYFH status has been achieved once more which means that the shopping list, shopping, ironing, sorting out my company pension situation and union membership lapse (I was sure I’d sorted that out, but apparently not …) will have to wait until the pile of CDs has gone down ...

The menu (new feature – I’ll only mention it if it was particularly yummy!):
Lunch: feta, tomato, olive & basil salad made with deliciously “tomatoey tasting” home grown tomatoes
Dinner: spicy vegetable fajitas (the tortillas were proper corn ones – hurrah a naturally wheat free meal!)

Thursday, September 22, 2005

To post or not to post?

After great deliberation and many long and boring drafts here it is.  There is no satisfying conclusion on this one…

I'm not doing very well at pacing myself at the moment. You'd think that being a Project Manager I'd be able to prioritise and manage my time effectively, and in a work sense – no problem; in a personal sense however...  

Over the last few years I have, in fits and starts, been creeping up my own list of priorities, having always placed myself fairly far down it in the past.  Previously my position has always come after: doing the sensible thing, not upsetting the apple cart and keeping everyone happy, in the misguided belief that the side effect would be that I might also be happy. Potty logic I know … Anyway, to cut a very long and boring story short, I now find myself in a position right at the top of my agenda with the new resolve not to squander any more time and to do my utmost not to keep putting off happiness.

Trouble is that I now have lots of things I want to do and because I’ve wasted so much time in the past I’m doing the daft thing of trying to cram it all in at once: new job / challenge (this is proving to be a steep yet strangely pleasurable learning curve), meeting new people, properly keeping in touch with people I already know, going to the gym, finally getting round to learning to Salsa, doing more singing, enjoying the benefits of living in London, ie. going to events etc (which I’ve not done enough of so far and which I am aware is a crime after living here for 14 years), volunteering for Crisis this Christmas, preparing for the Inca Trail next year, allowing myself the luxury of time alone and most importantly nurturing and preserving my important relationship.

Now, all of this involves hard work, late nights, and a serious investment of emotional effort and essentially because I’m trying to do it all at once I’m exhausted - trouble is I don’t want to leave any of it out …
    

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

To blog, or not to blog?

For those who worry that because I haven’t posted anything for a couple of days that I’m giving up blogging – I’m not! I am writing a blog, but I’m not sure if I should post it. I’ll continue to write it and make up my mind when I’m finished … It may be just one of those things that needs to be emptied from my head but not actually posted!

Of course this wouldn’t have been a problem back in the early days when no-one was reading this would it?

On a very happy note – I’ve just booked tickets to see
Bill Bailey at the Dome in Brighton as an early birthday treat to myself. Now all that needs to happen is that TH doesn’t get a job that night …

Monday, September 19, 2005

Mission Accomplished!

I woke up thinking of the moon again this morning. It had really lifted my spirits the night before, yet an emotionally draining morning yesterday, followed by a PPT session, topped off with a late night at the Thames Festival were conspiring against me in my quest to get ready for a hardcore shopping mission with Lou. I was almost on the point of calling the day off (rare for me as I hate messing people about) when happily a spirit lift happened upon me again in the form of the accidental 'running on' of iTunes into "And he shall purify" from Handel's Messiah. I've not listened to it for wee while now and had forgotten how fantastic it is, especially when you're actually performing it; but listening or performing it really does make the heart soar.  So about 40 bars into the it, the quest was back on and I was up and raring to go. Great stuff!  

A serious day's shopping followed with Lou. She turned up looking like she was going on an expedition! Now I had a rucksack with me, but apart from a book and my corkscrew (never leave home without one …) it was empty, the point being that the day’s purchases could be packed in there. Lou’s rucksack however was full of thermals, scarves, woolly hats, emergency provisions and a particularly beautiful new umbrella which now apparently creates a requirement for a new pair of pink leather gloves; that’s her excuse and she’s sticking to it!

Unusually for an Oxford Street trip my mission’s objectives were fully accomplished and with only one moment of shop rage; why do some of these shops have to play the damn music SO LOUD?? Making a decision through high volume R&B is impossible for me. Anyway, the Jane Norman changing room escape aside I actually managed to get everything I went out for. Result!

As usual I ended up with a few non essential items chucked in for good measure, plus had a cheeky flirtation with a pair of sophisticated Roland Cartier boots which were sadly well out of my league. So far out that I didn’t even try them on; I just stroked them and drank in their gorgeousness. Trying boots on that I can’t afford and don’t need is actually just the slippery slope to buying them, especially in light of my “footwear problem”.

I blame my Saturday job. I used to work in a shoe shop and even though I only worked one day per week the company remarkably awarded me the same discount deal as full time employees – 20% off all footwear and 50% of any shoes that were black or grey, as they were classed as “uniform”. You can imagine the temptation … My Dad became increasingly cross with the volume of shoes and boots which I brought home. One day in a fit of frustration he flung open my wardrobe doors and counted the shoe boxes – summary being “15! No-one needs 15 pairs of shoes! It must stop.”

Thoroughly chastised I consoled myself with the fact that while the telling off had been quite bad, imagine what it would have been like if he had realised that there were two pairs of shoes in each box …    

Sunday, September 18, 2005

The moon and I

The moon and I had a bit of a moment last night. I turned into concert hall approach on my way to Waterloo after I’d finished at the Thames Festival and was struck by the beautiful sight of a huge, almost full, clear faced golden moon, framed by high buildings and laced with whisps of cloud. I actually stopped in the street to take it in and instinctively looked round for someone to share it with. While the street was bustling with people enjoying the Thames Festival, I realised I was to all intents and purposes on my own, so turned back to enjoy the moment, just me & the moon, alone. I’ve really got to get a digital camera …

Thursday, September 15, 2005

The wonderful web of thoughts

I woke up this morning feeling a wee bit melancholy. I’ve not been sleeping well, had the prospect of today being a long day out of the office at a time when I’m far too busy to be out of the office, and opening the curtains revealed a damp and dismal day. So, I was coming out of the house bracing myself for the joys of public transport from South London to Paddington and was trying to find something good to think about the day. And there it was, an enormous spider’s web on a hydrangea positively glistening with plumptuous raindrops. I immediately wanted to take a picture of it, but then immediately remembered how rubbish the camera is on the otherwise fabulous Pocket PC. “I should really have proper digital camera to capture stuff like that” I thought, “If I got a dinky one I could carry it around with me for moments such as this”. However, as I clipped my keys to the inside of my handbag I realised that even if I could afford to treat myself (which I can’t!) I would probably lose it anyway; the fact that I haven’t lost my Pocket PC to date is pretty miraculous. Indeed the only reason I’m not constantly searching for my keys is because of the clever clip which I transfer to which ever handbag I’m using!

This then reminded me of other things I always lose: hankies (I never lose tissues strangely, just hankies), earrings and gloves – about two of those a year. My Mum used to guard against my serial mitten loss via the “mittens on elastic threaded through the sleeves of the coat” technique. Other kids’ mothers had a similar approach at the schools I went to, but they had string rather than elastic. As you can imagine the whole elastic thing opened up new possibilities and before long, at which ever new school I went to, the new kid who didn't speak like everyone else became a spinning top. Two local children would be running round me hanging onto a glove each seeing how fast I could spin and how far the elastic would stretch; then the spinning would be stopped and the gloves released, the inherent property of elastic ensuring their rapid snap back at my wrists … Lets just say that you soon learn to speak in the local accent and even if you never really fit in, the spinning gradually stops.

This whole bunch of thoughts took only moments which is amazing in itself; however, it’s not just the rapidity of thought that is amazing, but the whizzing through of the emotions that are all wrapped up with them.
  • Joy: the beauty of the spider’s web

  • Smugness: I cleverly have a small clip to prevent constant searching for keys

  • Love: Mum

  • Anger: cruelty of kids

  • Sadness: spending much of life not fitting in

  • Smiley: the comical image of me as bizarre spinning top.
Phew! All a bit much for the early morning really.

Then almost as quickly I started to feel the flippin' melancholy creeping up on me again – damn it. So I decided to push everything down except for the joy that there are beautiful things like spider webs in the world. (And that's in spite of my feelings about spiders under the bed!)

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Phew!

Spider dealt with!

Of course there is no way of knowing for certain that there weren’t 2 enormous spiders …

********!?

Be very still! There is an enormous spider in my bedroom!

I am sat on the bed typing this and keeping a beady eye on it to check where it moves to.  Bugger – it just moved!  Why do they have to scuttle??  I have drained my glass of water in readiness to do the brave thing and put a glass over it and put it outside like TH does, but I can’t actually bring myself to put my feet on the floor let alone get anywhere near it.  Bugger it just moved again, only now I can’t see where it went. Jeez it shifts fast.  I think it’s underneath the boots which I haven’t got round to putting back in the cupboard … (note to self – must be tidier). No! Bugger, bugger, bugger, it’s just shot under the bed.  There is absolutely no way I’m going to get any sleep now.  “Out of sight, out of mind” doesn’t work for spiders under the bed.  If it’s UNDER the bed, it could easily end up ON the bed, and if it’s ON the bed it could end up on ME.  I know this is completely irrational of me, it’s probably more scared of me than I am of it blah, blah, blah … but its going to have to go some to be more scared than me at the moment.

I’m just going to have to wait here, in the middle of the bed, until TH gets back from his gig and hope that he has a rational suggestion.  I expect he’ll just be really cross with me (I don’t blame him!) but I’m really not moving anywhere until I’ve seen it again, preferably underneath a glass being put out in the garden.  I could be here for some time …

Saturday, September 10, 2005

There's a hole ...

So after what felt like 10 leaving do’s jazzshark has gone …  Actually I think it was only 5 (only!) and I was at 4 of them!  It was a bit of a joke at the end – “do you think you might actually go somewhere after one of these do’s or what?”

But it’s happened now – I look forward to reading all about it on the Jazzsharking blog – and I must admit to feeling more than a little bereft.

I had great hopes of doing a farewell verse as Goose Vertica Space has impressed me of late and I felt insanely inspired to do my own sharking tribute.  Thank goodness I didn’t commit the intention to blog, because that would have meant that I really had to do it; if I say I’m going to do it in the blog then I have to do it (that’s my rule).  But I can’t!  I was always rubbish at poetry at school and in spite of chewing several virtual pencils through (of course I didn’t actually try and do it with pen and paper – that’s what a laptop is for!) I only managed an embarrassing variation on “one, two, buckle my shoe”!

The upshot is that I’ve lost the shark to new and exciting waters.  She’s made me laugh on countless occasions, she’s been a shoulder to cry on, she let me sleep in the same house as her while wearing pink lace knickers, she’s educated me in matters jazz (can I imagine my life without Pat Metheny? No!), she’s always encouraging me to sing more (I will – I promise!), she even managed to swing me a job once, she’s made me more addicted to my computer than I already was damn her! And ultimately I think she knows me better than anyone.

I miss you terribly already shark, but with any luck we’ll be back on the IM before we know it and I can just pretend you’re round the corner!

Lots of love

Bloomin

    

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Thank the Lord for M & S!

  • Cracking gym session.

  • Relaxing shower.

  • Open bag containing clothes for work.

  • That’s all I’m saying.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Time, ticking away ...

There are just never enough hours in the day are there? There are so many things I HAVE to do, which I just have real trouble stacking up against the things I WANT to do. I’m much better than I used to be about making time for me and not being “all consumed” with work and domestic chores, but no matter how much I let things go, that in the past I wouldn’t have – ie. the state of the house, garden and disorganised earrings; I still have great difficulty fitting it all in.

Why is it that this work / life balance is so hard to achieve for me? I think that is something for me to ponder and explore at a deeper level … Either way its just as well that I’m an organised bird, because if I didn’t have:

  • lists of stuff to do at work,

  • lists of stuff to do at home,

  • lists of stuff to do for me

  • AND the assistance of my marvellous Pocket PC,
I don’t know how I’d manage anything except getting up, going to work and coming home again!

As it is I’m in the process of drawing up a timetable for Salsa Classes (just got leafleted the other day which was perfect timing!), the gym – gotta keep PPT happy (!), practicing my singing, going to gigs, keeping in touch with friends, applying fake tan, dying my eyelashes (still haven’t managed to do that!), spending time with TH and of course blogging! All this and I haven’t even started looking at the details I’ve had through about my intended Inca Trail Trek next year. Once I start on that it’s going to mean big time fundraising and big time training … Need a bigger Pocket PC!!!

Sunday, September 04, 2005

The evil PPT

I don’t wish to be overdramatic but I can’t move my upper body this morning – my hands are fine for typing – phew! but my arms, shoulders and back have pretty much seized up.  This is all on account of my evil Pocket-sized Personal Trainer.  Pocket-sized because whilst within his own proportions he is a big strong lad, he is nevertheless diddy ie. not very tall, I mentioned this once and he wasn’t impressed!  but then I’m not very tall either so I reckon it works fine …    The upshot is that he is “small but perfectly formed.”  That’s OK to say isn’t it?  

Anyway, said PPT gave me the hardest session I’ve had so far on Friday afternoon.  Or maybe I was just being a whimp? Apparently I’d used up all my rests in previous sessions (I do have a tendency to talk a bit …) so I had NO RESTS.  Supersets all over the shop and the pause between the supersets were only as long as it took for the next exercise to be explained.  I’d pushed myself so hard I had sweat dripping off the end of my nose (attractive eh!) and I also had to lie down for 10 minutes before I could even manage to have a shower! Honestly, I can’t quite believe that I pay for such abuse!  

OK, so dramatics over – I do know why I pay for it, its because I enjoy being pushed and a good old natter when he’s not being mean!  I push myself quite hard already, but sometimes when I’m workingout alone I get to 16 reps out of 20 or whatever, catch sight of myself in the flippin’ mirrors they insist on having in these gyms, realise I’m tomato red, grunting and sweating profusely, have an attack of vanity and give up!  No chance of that with the PPT, if I give him a “please let me stop” look, which he interprets as a dirty look, that’s when I hear – “… and another 10”.  I love it!

    

You have no idea ...

… what went into getting the last blog published. Those of you paying attention will already have noticed that it was posted a day later than written – and why was that? I can’t quite believe it myself, but Jools – “the safest browser in the west” got a computer nasty – some pesky spy ware! It didn’t lock down my laptop or damage any system files, it just wouldn’t let me get on to the internet, IM or send and receive emails. As you can imagine I was lost! Not only that, it wouldn’t let any of the other computers on the network do any of that either!

My router very politely suggested I ran a virus scan – hadn’t done one for a wee while so I ran a Norton full system scan and it found 7 nasties lurking – identified as adware and with a theoretical promise the problem was fixable. I proceeded with the delete and repair procedure only to be told that 6 of the files couldn’t be deleted and that I should click on the link to find out how to manually delete them. So, I clicked on the link knowing full well that it was going to try and take me to some webpage somewhere for my instructions. “But the point is …” I’m crying at the computer screen “… I can’t get onto the internet!!!!” So I ran Ad-Aware instead which found 26 nasties – I actually run this once every couple of weeks anyway because it doesn’t matter how careful you are, you still end up with Cookie Tracking rubbish on your machine. I followed the Ad-Aware quarantine and delete procedure and Hey Presto! problem solved. Blog posted! Hurray for a lovely bit of “freeware” which did a better bloomin’ job than Norton for which I pay subscription – not that I really expected it to pick up spy ware in the first place, but its just once it had identified it, it would have been nice if it could something with it! So I just wanted everyone to know what a cracking job Ad-Aware does and that you should all head out to the Lavasoft site and get yourself a copy. Run it regularly, keep it up-to-date and to continue practising safe browsing.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Busy, busy, busy ...

Blimey – no time to blog lately – what’s going on in my world that made that happen all of a sudden? No time to blog lately roughly translates as “No time to myself lately …” or at least no time to myself which didn’t involve doing chores. I must admit that I did only plan on spending an hour working in the garden the other day, but the problem is you make a neat bit and then the bit next to it looks a real mess, so you have to do that bit as well. Before I knew it I’d spent a mammoth 4 hours out there, was sunburned, had a stinking headache and hadn’t showered or packed in readiness for a couple of days away with TH - oops. Either way the time I had earmarked for blogging last weekend was shot – but the garden looks great!

Since my last post then …

I finished work for a week’s annual leave. Hurray! I had a seriously bad week that week. Maybe it’s because I’ve only been there 2 months and the novelty of the new job has worn off, but I don’t feel comfortable enough in my position to be able to bite back at some of the stupid things that go on. Happily on my last day I had lunch (lunch?? How outrageous! the office cries …) with another member of staff who started on the same day as me and we had a couple of glasses of wine (drinking at lunchtime? How outrageous! the office cries …) and a seriously good bitch! It was just the tonic both of us needed I think and we have made a pact to get out and have lunch at least once a fortnight – steady on – we’re going to get seriously frowned upon here!

I had a very sedate Saturday night out with Georgina Mary – we had planned debauched eating, drinking and dancing but ended up drinking, drinking, eating and then me falling asleep in front of Finding Nemo … How embarrassing. Good news is, after a little IM master class, she is now making tentative steps into the world of IM – don’t think she was quite taken with scrobbling, but once her typing is up to speed and we can have a decent conversation, I’ll work on her!

Sunday was spent on the mammoth gardening session and was followed by drinking far too much with friends in their new house (I always end up doing that with them – the evening generally deteriorates into a bottle of Port, especially if I don’t need to drive after …) They’re doing up an old school house (in the country – complete with country smells!) which is great, apart from the “North face of the Eiger” staircase you have to negotiate every time you need a pee … Fine in the normal scheme of things (well, no actually its not really fine – its really scary) but an utter nightmare in the early hangover hours of the day! Thank goodness no-one saw me climbing it on my hands and knees …

After that, TH and I hit the south coast and spent a couple of days in said friends’ cottage. Really lovely little place – with another seriously scary staircase – what is it with these people? However there is no TV – TH was going stir crazy, and no access to the internet – Bloominjools was going stir crazy! I really didn’t think I was addicted to my laptop, but it turns out I am. I couldn’t get online but I still sat with my laptop on my knees like some sort of security blanket. I played a bit of music which TH endured but I don’t think liked (Avishai Cohen) and made some additions to my “farewell Jazzshark” recipe book. I have just finished the book this morning actually and am making arrangements to get it printed out this afternoon – after a session with my Pocket Personal Trainer and before yet another leaving do. So if you’re reading this Ms Shark, it’s on its way!

We had a happy little day trip to France where my lovely summer heat rash attractively bubbled into action … Sun, heat and me don’t mix – I go red and blotchy and very, VERY, ITCHY and remain that way for a couple of days. At this point English summer normally gives in and returns to its usual damp and dismal August state and I then go back to being white again. Hence the fake tan obsession. It’s really embarrassing realising that people aren’t dazzled by your beauty or personality, just the unfeasible whiteness of Bloominjools in a sun top …

Anyway, pleasant lunch in Boulogne was followed by a leisurely stocking up on wine in Calais. Well, it was leisurely right up until the point that I overheard the woman behind me in the queue mention the time … Who had completely forgotten to change her watch on the crossing over in the morning …? Its amazing how the threat of missing the last Seacat back to Dover can focus your mind into making very quick decisions on how many cases of what to buy in the next supermarket on the list! We got to the Seacat just in time to check in thanks to some nifty wrong side of the road driving from TH – phew!

Once back in London, the holiday continued with Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic, which I thoroughly enjoyed – apart from the embarrassingly audible gasp when Mr Spacey made his first entrance. Honestly – it was just silly. I thought the American woman behind me was going to wet herself! Yesterday was spent having a picnic and mooching around Camden Lock (I bought several second hand books and a silly skirt I don’t need!) and then took the River Bus down to Little Venice. A lovely relaxing day.

And now it’s Friday again! And as you can see TH is off with his little white balls and I have had time to do a mammoth blog! I had meant to do the ironing and dye my eyelashes but hey, this has been more fun – for me anyway!